Ten Notre Dame Academy students will perform their teacher’s play “Deadly Medley” at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland this August.

The play’s writer Trish Sanders is also an international baccalaureate (IB) teacher and the director of theater at Notre Dame Academy (NDA). NDA started its IB program to foster the “idea we are part of a big world,” Sanders said. The Edinburgh Fringe Festival runs from Aug. 3-27 and features about 2,000 performances.

The students will perform a sneak peek of Sanders’ play in Toledo on June 22 and 24.

NDA students who will perform in the Edinburgh Fringe Arts Festival include, left to right: top row Megan O’Toole, Molly Martindale; second row Indra Andreshak, Tori Zajac, Alexandra Davis, Natasha Foley; third row Juliet Hudson; fourth row Sarah Orchard and Marisa Napoli; seated on floor, April Varner. Photo courtesy Notre Dame Academy.

“[The play] is short and fun and if you can’t get to Scotland, you can at least get to Notre Dame this weekend,” Sanders said.

Sanders’ play is a parody of “Julius Caesar,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “Macbeth” and “Hamlet.”

“It’s a great introduction to Shakespearean acting in a very silly way,” she said.

Sanders received word her play was accepted into the festival in May 2011 after being nominated by James S. Hill, department chair of theater and film at the University of Toledo College of Visual and Performing Arts. NDA was chosen from 160 schools and is the only Ohio school performing. Schools are evaluated by the American High School Theatre Festival Board of Advisors.

Sanders traveled to the festival last year to get an idea of how to make her play work in 120 minutes, including set-up and takedown. She said she hopes performing the play in Toledo first and in Columbus in July gives the students a heads-up.

“Obviously, it’s good for us to perform for an audience before we go,” she said. “The more we can do this before, the better for everyone.”

The trip was open to any student who was interested and could afford it, Sanders said. Many of the students haven’t been overseas before.

“They’re pumped,” Sanders said. “We just had a rehearsal and we talked after and it’s starting to become very real.”

During two weeks in August, the girls will have the opportunity to see several productions and do some sightseeing, Sanders added. They will do five performances total while in Scotland. Some of the students are new to theater while others are NDA theater veterans. Each girl also plays more than one part.

The students performing are: Sarah Orchard, Molly Martindale, April Varner, Alexandra Davis, Natasha Foley, Marisa Napoli, Indra Andreshak, Juliet Hudson, Megan O’Toole and Tori Zajac. Alum Brittanie Kuhr and IB teacher Jean Walker will also accompany the group.

Sanders said she isn’t sure when she would next apply for the Fringe Festival.

“It’s a big undertaking and it’s not something you do every year, but it’s something I could see doing again,” she said.

The preview shows are 7 p.m. June 22 and 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. June 24 at Notre Dame Academy, 3535 W. Sylvania Ave. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students. Tickets are available at www.nda.org or at the door.

Tags: Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Notre Dame Academy, Scotland, Shakespeare

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 19th, 2012 at 11:20 am and is filed under Education, Festivals, Star.
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“Was Shakespeare a fraud?”

The question is asked by posters, banners, commercials and other advertising for the new film “Anonymous,” which saw limited release  Oct. 28. As the movie opens wider, its tantalizing plot filled with conspiracy, secrets and claims about the truth behind theater’s most famous playwright will continue to draw a curious audience.

But the scholarship behind its premise — that Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford, was the true author of Shakespeare’s works — is widely considered shaky at best and an offensive example of classism at worst.

Stephannie Gearhart, assistant professor in the Department of English at Bowling Green State University, had more than her fair share of experience dealing with the Bard’s work. She has presented essays at the Shakespeare Association of America, written numerous articles related to his plays and is currently writing a book manuscript, “Drama and the Politics of Generational Conflict in Shakespeare’s England.”

“With apologies to Ben Jonson, then, I’d say that Shakespeare was both ‘of an age’ and ‘for all time,’ though readers tend to ignore the former point in favor of the latter point,” Gearhart wrote in an email interview with Toledo Free Press Star.

Gearhart is intimately familiar with the Earl of Oxford theory, from its origins in the 1920 work of an author named (no jokes, please) J. Thomas Looney. It was Looney who posited that someone like de Vere would have a greater working knowledge of the royal court than an “outsider” like Shakespeare.

“Further, a man like de Vere, who because of his class position attended university, is assumed to have been capable of writing such sophisticated plays,” Gearhart said. “Shakespeare, on the other hand, had a more limited education because of his class position and thus is assumed by Oxfordians to have been unable to compose the plays; some critics even go so far as to suggest that Shakespeare was illiterate.”

These arguments are intriguing but they have no basis in reality.

“This theory is not based in fact but in a desire to find someone of a higher class to have been responsible for the plays,” Gearhart said.

“There are many reasonable objections to this theory, including 1. the education Shakespeare received would have been quite rigorous, and so to suggest he was illiterate or incapable of working so successfully with language is foolish; 2. the assumptions made about class in this theory are untenable; 3. de Vere’s extant poetry is not of the same quality as the poetry in the plays; 4. de Vere died in 1604, but several of the plays, including ‘Macbeth’ and ‘The Tempest,’ were written after this date.”

The theory also carries an unsettling streak of condescension, sneering at the idea that someone of “lower birth” could ever have accomplished something as grand as the Bard’s work.

“The objection that someone in Shakespeare’s social position could not have written the plays is founded upon a very ugly assumption about the intellectual abilities of those not belonging to the upper class,” Gearhart said.

Gearhart is concerned that audience members may end up swallowing the film’s version of history.

“Moviegoers tend to like conspiracy theory films, and I fear that if ‘Anonymous’ presents a compelling enough narrative, viewers will be convinced by it regardless of the facts. Most viewers, I suspect, are unaware of how and why a theory like this one came to be and all of the very reasonable evidence against it,” she said.

To that end, she said maybe those in the film’s audience will be inspired to do their own research, and learn for themselves what the facts (or lack thereof) behind the Oxford theory really are. Or maybe asking a larger question: More than 400 years after they first appeared, why do we even care about the question of who “really” wrote the plays?

“What I mean by this is, if we have all of these wonderful plays, why, we should ask ourselves, are we so concerned with identifying a single individual responsible for producing them? Why is authorship so important to us, and why does it bother us when we are uncertain about it?”

Gearhart has no answer for the most pivotal question of all — whether she’ll be seeing the film herself when it arrives in the area.

“I know that the film will not change my mind about the authorship question. At the same time, I’ve heard that it’s wise to know your enemy, so perhaps I will venture out to see ‘Anonymous,’ even if I end up watching it, as will most other Shakespeare scholars, gritting my teeth and shaking my head,” she said.

Email Jeff at PopGoesJeff@gmail.com.

Tags: Anonymous, Edward de Vere, Jeff McGinnis, Shakespeare, Stephannie Gearhart

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 1st, 2011 at 10:41 am and is filed under Film, Pop Goes the Culture, Theater.
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NOTE: The original version of this column was published Aug. 10, 2008. It is more relevant now than then.

As we are all too often reminded, it’s not a perfect world. Sometimes the bad guys get away, the good guys make bad choices and innocent people catch the shrapnel.

The instability is constant because unpredictability is an intrinsic human trait. A more cynical view would replace “unpredictability” with “unreliability.”

Karma usually has the last word, and while there’s no empirical evidence of cosmic justice in the afterlife, it’s human nature to believe the big wheel of consequence transports good people to their destination while crushing bad people along the way. My guess is, that’s about 80 percent accurate.

What happens to those who betray confidence and intentionally abandon friends and family? What happens to those who steal and lie and intimidate people? Perhaps this dirty dozen of historical and fictional examples will offer some solace to the aggrieved.

1. Judas Iscariot: For 30 pieces of silver, Judas betrayed Jesus Christ and set the Crucifixion in motion. Depending on the source material, Judas hanged himself, was stoned to death or had his bowels spilled in a field, none of which is a happy ending.

2. Benedict Arnold: Feeling unappreciated and slighted, the George Washington-appointed commandant of Philadelphia took more than 10,000 British pounds, a pension and some land in Canada for working with John Andre to give West Point secrets to the British. Upon capture, Andre was executed. Arnold escaped and eventually fled to London, where he died of gout, dropsy and delirium.

3. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in “Hamlet”: Shakespeare makes the ultimate case for killing the messengers for the message: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are longtime friends with Hamlet, but serve as spies for the evil and murderous King Claudius. They are sent on a mission to see Hamlet killed, but the downbeat prince turns the tables and the two betrayers are sent to their deaths.

4. Scar: More regicidal hijinks. In “The Lion King,” jealous Scar arranges the death of his brother, King Mufasa, in a wildebeest stampede. Scar lives the high life for a while, but eventually his greed and disregard for friends and family lead to his being torn apart by the very hyenas he once partnered with. Are you noticing a trend here?

5. Brutus: Betrayed Julius Caesar, leading the 44 B.C. plot to assassinate the Roman leader. Brutus committed suicide after a military defeat, less than two years after his traitorous act.

6. John Walker Lindh: An American who pleaded guilty to being a member of the Taliban, Lindh received a far-too-easy 20-year prison sentence. He got off light. Charges against him included conspiracy to murder U.S. citizens and conspiracy to provide material support and resources to designated foreign terrorist organizations. In January 2003, Lindh was locked away at the United States Penitentiary, a high-security prison in Victorville, Calif., northeast of Los Angeles.

7. Fredo Corleone: Fredo, the weakest of Don Corleone’s sons, betrayed the family off-screen in “The Godfather” and paid for it with his life in “The Godfather II.” As played by John Cazale, Fredo was a whiny loser who let delusions of grandeur jeopardize his family and their business. Fredo is shot and dumped in a lake when his brother Michael exacts the inevitable revenge.

8. Iago: Shakespeare’s greatest villain is one of the ultimate traitors. Iago pretends to be General Othello’s trusted adviser, but systematically destroys Othello’s life though scheming and lying. Wez do not see Iago’s execution, but it is implied. There was certainly no sequel or spinoff featuring the dastardly traitor.

9. Aldrich Ames: Ames gave the Russians the identities of American spies and other intelligence information. He reportedly jeopardized more than 100 American intelligence efforts. His traitorous actions earned him a reported $4.5 million, blood money for the 10 Americans who were executed as a result of his betrayal. The CIA believes he eventually gave away every U.S. agent who was working against the USSR. He is serving life in prison.

10. Salieri: Salieri, in stage and film incarnations, is jealous of Mozart’s talent. He pretends to befriend Amadeus but all the while plots to thwart his career. Eventually, Salieri plots to trick Mozart into writing his own requiem. The stress contributes to Mozart’s pauper death. Salieri lives long enough to see his own work forgotten and Mozart’s increasingly celebrated.

11. Peter Pettigrew: The entire “Harry Potter” saga spins the way it does because Harry’s parents trusted Pettigrew, who betrayed them to ultimate baddie Lord Voldemort. For his reward, Pettigrew spends years as the rat Scabbers, earns the cheery nickname Wormtail, loses a hand and is eventually strangled by the magical prosthetic hand that replaces his filthy, weak natural one.

12. Your name here.

Michael S. Miller is editor in chief of Toledo Free Press and Toledo Free Press Star. Contact him at mmiller@

toledofreepress.com.

Tags: Aldrich Ames, Amadeus, Benedict Arnold, Brutus, CIA, Don Corleone, Fredo Corleone, George Washington, Guildenstern, Hamlet, Harry Potter, Iago, Jesus Christ, John Cazale, John Walker Lindh, Judas Iscariot, Julius Caesar, Lighting The Fuse, Lion King, Lord Voldemort, Michael Corleone, Michael S. Miller, Mozart, Othello, Peter Pettigrew, Rosencrantz, Salieri, Scar, Shakespeare, The Godfather, The Godfather II

This entry was posted on Friday, August 26th, 2011 at 12:00 am and is filed under Lighting The Fuse, Opinion.
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